Disbanding of South Sudan's ruling party highlights president's attempts to consolidate power ahead of 2015 elections/ IHS Global Insight Daily Analysis 18.11.13 Natznet Tesfay
On 15 November 2013, President Salva Kiir Mayardit announced that as chairman of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), he is dissolving the party's structures. Kiir said the move – which disbanded the SPLM's highest executive body, the Political Bureau, as well as the National Liberation Council – was prompted by the delay of the SPLM's third national convention, originally scheduled for May 2013. On 17 November, Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth criticised media reports for misinterpreting the president's public announcement, explaining that Kiir will disband the SPLM's structures once his initiatives for reorganising the party are under way. The president plans to appoint a special committee to restructure the party from grassroots level. Former vice-president and SPLM deputy chair Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon criticised the president's move as a violation of the party's constitution. Since June 2013, IHS has noted Kiir's attempts to sideline political rivals within the SPLM ahead of South Sudan's first post-independence general election in 2015. In July, Kiir dissolved the cabinet, dismissed Machar as vice-president, and suspended the SPLM secretary-general, Pagan Amum Okiech (see Sudan: 24 July 2013: ). Much like his cabinet appointments, Kiir is likely to promote loyalists within the new SPLM structure, such as vice-president and SPLM second deputy James Wani Igga, and key ethnic Nuer and Dinka Bor leaders, in order to neutralise the influence of Machar and Amum respectively (see Sudan: 2 August 2013: ). Significance: President Kiir's apparent disregard for South Sudan's "liberators" raises the risk of popular backlash, given that most of the SPLM leadership are still revered as war heroes. The president's move also increases the likelihood of the SPLM splintering, with Kiir's opponents, like Machar and Amum, creating rival parties. However, the narrowing of the political space for any opposition increases the risk of violence between rival groups, particularly ahead of the 2015 election. Competition for political influence is likely to be acute within Machar's home area, including the oil-rich Jonglei state, thus posing a risk of disruption to the government's auctioning of oil blocks scheduled for 2014. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14ooJJSdbFOD4Cr-BZTtVAMMYui0OR%2BKE28kB8ch2gWsSiw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
